This report details findings from "Technology-Based Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2004-05," a survey that was designed to provide policymakers, researchers, and educators with information about technology-based distance education courses in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide. This report also compares these findings with baseline data collected in 2002-03, and provides longitudinal analysis of change in the districts that responded to both the 2002-03 and 2004-05 surveys. For these two surveys, distance education courses were defined as credit-granting courses offered via audio, video, or Internet or other computer technologies to elementary and secondary school students enrolled in the district, in which the teacher and students were in different locations. Findings indicate that 37 percent of public school districts and 10 percent of all public schools nationwide had students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses during 2004-05. During 2002-03, 36 percent of districts and 9 percent of schools had students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses. About a quarter (26 percent) of school districts that existed in both 2002-03 and 2004-05 had students enrolled in technology-based distance education in both school years, 11 percent did not have students in this type of education in 2002-03 but had such enrollments in 2004-05, and an equal percentage of districts (11 percent) had students enrolled in technology-based distance education in 2002-03 but not in 2004-05. The number of enrollments in technology-based distance education courses increased from an estimated 317,070 enrollments in 2002-03 to 506,950 in 2004-05. The number of enrollments varied considerably among districts, although the majority of districts (57 percent) reported between one and 20 technology-based distance education enrollments in 2004-05. Distance education was more commonly offered by high schools than by schools at any other level, with 61 percent of technology-based distance education enrollments at the high school level. Seventy-one percent of districts with students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses in 2004-05 planned to expand their distance education courses in the future.
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